Hamas slams ICC for seeking arrest of its leaders alongside Netanyahu, Gallant
Terror group says World Court should not equate ‘victim with executioner’ and insists on right to ‘armed resistance’
The Hamas terror group on Monday denounced a decision by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrests of its leaders and complained that the prosecutor announced the development in the same breath as a similar move against Israel’s prime minister and defense minister.
In a statement Monday, Hamas said it “strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders.”
The warrants relate to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began when the Palestinian terror group led a devastating attack on Israel on October 7.
“Hamas… demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance, for violating UN conventions and resolutions,” the statement said.
Hamas added that it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance,” and criticized the court for seeking the arrests of only two Israeli leaders.
International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan earlier said he had requested arrest warrants from the court’s judges for Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s ruler in Gaza; the terror group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif; and the leader of the organization, Ismail Haniyeh. He said they would be charged with extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the prosecutor’s decision “equates the victim with the executioner” and encourages Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.
Both Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza, where Israel is trying to hunt them down. But Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Islamic terror group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.
Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said, “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves… The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who are pursuing crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
Prosecutor Khan also said he was seeking warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
Israeli officials denounced the move and also criticized the ICC for lumping Israel and Hamas together.
Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But Khan’s announcement deepens Israel’s isolation as it presses ahead with its war, and the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
Israel says its offensive in Gaza is aimed at eliminating Hamas and the high civilian toll is due to the terror group’s use of civilians as human shields.
During Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel, terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 252.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 35,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though only some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals. The tolls, which cannot be verified, include some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Two hundred and eighty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip.
